


We Could Be

by speccygeekgrrl



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-07
Updated: 2009-10-07
Packaged: 2017-10-02 12:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the wake of their role reversal, Hiro wonders how Ando put up with being his sidekick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Could Be

They've been apart less than a day and there's already so much to tell each other. Ando's story is shorter, easier to sum up on the taxi ride to a hotel (and when was the last time they had to take a cab anywhere?), and Hiro smiles when Ando tells him about fainting and then accidentally figuring out his power. The smile doesn't reach his eyes, though, and he's quiet and indrawn until the hotel room door closes behind them.

"Hiro..." Ando sits at the foot of one of the beds, watching his best friend walk to the window and stare out at the streets of Manhattan. "I have the last Ninth Wonders, if you want to read it."

"I know what happened," Hiro says, and he sounds exhausted, completely drained physically and emotionally. "Trust me."

"It's okay to be sad, but... I'm still here, Hiro. It's our destiny, right? Not yours, not mine. Ours." Hiro lets his head fall against the window, and Ando sighs, walking over to slide his arms around Hiro's waist.

"My power is gone, Ando. What do I do now?" Hiro sounds lost, confused, bereft; Ando leans into his back and kisses gently behind his ear.

"You keep going. Remember when you came up to me with a comic book and told me you could stop time?"

"Yeah." Hiro's hands cover Ando's, resting warm on them. "You thought I was crazy."

"Well, I don't have to convince you. You know already. Our positions are switched, that's all."

"Yes, but--" Ando squeezes him just enough to take Hiro's breath away.

"But nothing. If my skeptic ass could keep you going, your courage will keep me on track as a hero." He laughs a little. "Come on. It's always been Hiro and Ando, Ando and Hiro, ever since we were kids."

"I'm sorry, Ando." Hiro sighs, turning in Ando's arms to look up into his eyes. "I don't know how you put up with it."

"You don't--" Ando laughs louder this time, turning them around and pushing Hiro over to the bed, pausing a step away. "I put up with it because I'd do anything for you. You think I would have risked my life with some formula I wasn't sure about if I didn't love you?" He bites his lower lip, glancing away. "I wanted to be your hero for a change."

Hiro studies his face for a long moment-- a face he knows better than his own, the one person he sees more than anyone else, the man he's grown up beside, faced death beside. He knows why the future version of himself was so bleak-- he found out that Ando had died in that timeline, and it made so much sense...

Hiro had gone back five years just to save Ando's life, out of the millions what would have been lost in New York. Ando used a brand new power to go back 14 years to save him, not certain if it would work.

"It worked," he says, "but you've been a hero to me for longer than this." Ando's lips part, ready with a word, but Hiro stops the word on his tongue, catching Ando's full lower lip and sucking it gently.

"Hiro." Ando pushes him back a fraction of an inch, just enough to catch his eyes. "You're exhausted. So am I." He's already pulling Hiro's shirt off. "So let's just sleep together tonight. I want to kiss you until I fall asleep."

"You have wonderful ideas, Ando-kun." Down to boxers, Hiro's face soft and boyish without his glasses, lit by only the ambient glow of New York City streets, they drop all of the titles and pretenses-- hero and sidekick, coworkers, friends since childhood.

They're just Ando and Hiro, touching each other's faces and hair and shoulders with a new kind of attention, kissing softly and nuzzling together as they give in to the exhaustion of the day.


End file.
